Windows 98 Again

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Spirax

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#324601 2-May-2026 19:16

On a nostalgia trip trying to install Windows 98. Have tried 98SE and 98 1st edition but both hang on some unidentified (at least to me) hardware problem. Installing goes smoothly but then hangs at the W98 start screen.
My system is a Dell 3100, CPU is a P4 running at 3Ghz, 512 Mb RAM, 20Gb SATA HDD formatted FAT32. Is this too advanced for W98? The system runs Windows XP perfectly on a separate HDD.

Are there any W98 gurus out there that can help me? I live in Kapiti.

Thanks in advance

ANglEAUT

altered-ego
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#3486887 2-May-2026 23:55

Spirax: ..., 20Gb SATA HDD formatted FAT32. Is this too advanced for W98? ...

Unassisted? Yes, I would think so. You should have no problems loading Win98 on a hard drive with the 40 pin wide, grey ribbon cable. If you want to use SATA, you most likely will have to copy/extract the drive drivers for Win95/Win98/ Vista (32-bit) / WinXP (32-bit) from somewhere & copy them onto your boot media. Then you'll want to press something like F6 during the initial text portion of the setup to specify additional drivers & point it to the extracted drivers files on your boot media.

Please keep this GZ community vibrant by contributing in a constructive & respectful manner.

Spirax

78 posts

Master Geek
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#3486960 3-May-2026 09:28

Thank you. I could be out of my depth here. I have tried installing from the files on the CD using "Setup". I also copied the CD files to D:\Win9x folder and tried installing from there. How do I know what drivers are required? The BIOS info is not explicit.

huckster

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#3486964 3-May-2026 10:04

You may need to go to the Dell site and have a poke around for drivers for that model.

Alternatively can you see if the BIOS has an IDE emulation mode?

There are many attempts to do this on the internet e.g. https://retrosystemsrevival.blogspot.com/2020/04/windows-9598me-sataachi-driver.html

I did this quite a while ago and have nothing left to help you with. I do this stuff within Virtual Machines these days.

itey

482 posts

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#3486966 3-May-2026 10:16

Gosh I am still traumatized by the never ending BSOD with win 98 and the sound of dial up modem. Can't believe you want to re-experience that!!

Rikkitic

Awrrr
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#3486967 3-May-2026 10:25

98 was one of the worst OS disasters Microsoft ever inflicted on the world. 98SE was one of the best.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

Spirax

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#3486968 3-May-2026 10:27

It is a challenge for my 80 year old mind.

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huckster

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#3486981 3-May-2026 11:20

Did have one of the cooler startup sounds though.

Gurezaemon

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#3486984 3-May-2026 11:41

Spirax:

It is a challenge for my 80 year old mind.

Good on you for the inquisitiveness!

If you're just after a feel for how Win98 looked back in the day, there is always the option of it emulated in the browser such as at https://copy.sh/v86/

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sqishy

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#3486997 3-May-2026 12:57

I recall getting the old W95 CS installed on a newer platform a few years back. Copied all the files and ran the set-up. It went pretty quick but there are no graphics or network drivers so you get almost a look and feel only of some very low res VGA style screen.

rhy7s

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#3487156 3-May-2026 19:33

You might want to try QuickInstall https://github.com/oerg866/win98-quickinstall?hl=en-NZ